Attitude and desire, application and performance, from zeroes to heroes. All the old cliches were thrown into my mind after watching Rangers perform like that on Thursday night just days after watching Rangers perform like that on Sunday afternoon.

The 1-0 Premiership defeat to Kilmarnock was followed by a 4-0 Europa League win over FCSB. Two polar opposites in terms of performance and in terms of results. One was slow, lacking in tempo and hunger, while the other showed everything the aforementioned never. So why was it so different?

There was only two changes to the starting eleven as Leon Balogun and Nicolas Raskin started. The formation was the same at Ibrox as it was at Rugby Park. So that question will roam large. Was it down to effort?

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On Sunday, Rangers were slow, lethargic, wasteful and had a lack of desire. That translates into negative and passive football, the press is out of shape and at times we look very wasteful. Fast forward a couple of days and Rangers had a desire, they had a purpose and they won the fight and won the right to play.

I can’t help but feel it all emanated from a midfield which had not one but two Pit Bulls patrolling the midfield as Connor Barron was joined by Raskin. Between them, they snarled and bit into everything that came near them. Snapping into challenges, fighting for lost causes, pressing into the opposition, that desire drove the team on and key to that was winning possession in moments where Rangers could influence the game. 

When your structure presses as one, higher up the field, it allows Rangers to capitalise on moments where they could really hurt the Romanian champions. Vaclav Cerny being able to be high comes from the team moving up behind him and he nicks the ball brilliantly to score our second. 

The main word in now confirmation, these players (as much as the management) must seek consistency but the application and desire must also be upheld as it was against Bucharest. The disgraceful performance at Rugby Park and that standard of application can’t ever be repeated again.

Everyone at Ibrox now has a job to repair that synergy that the manager managed to build this time last year. I’m not so easily fooled by the European performance and say that now everything is rosy once again. Like it or not, the next three games domestically will be where this team is judged and where we will see if Malmo and FCSB are the outliers. 

I desperately hope they are not and Rangers begin to consistently motor in the right direction. Rangers need to become normalised right throughout the club and they need to become consistent for a fanbase that craves some stability on and off the pitch.

As for myself, it is never easy to question the manager and his tactics so publicly, but I hope in the months to come he has plenty of opportunities to remind me of my high balls point, just like he did in the presser on Thursday night.

The next three games domestically can be the confirmation that Rangers need, not only perhaps to themselves and the manager, but to the support. Three wins and three performances would repair some of the relationship that has been damaged of late. Nothing is fixed, no one is suddenly convinced, but a slight bit of hope remains flickering.